As wireless communications systems continue to evolve and improve, it may be common for a service area to be served by multiple wireless communications systems as service providers upgrade equipment while keeping older equipment operational for compatibility purposes. When two (or more) wireless communications systems serve a common service area and allow a communications device to access both wireless communications systems, the result may be referred to as an interworking.
An accounting problem may arise when a WiMAX network is interworking with a non-WiMAX network, such as the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE), with the WiMAX network providing access to the non-WiMAX network since the WiMAX network may not specify or support all of the accounting methods supported in the non-WiMAX network. Additionally, a format of accounting messages from the WiMAX network may not be the same as those supported in the non-WiMAX network. In general, a first network providing access to a second network may be referred to as an access network.
Furthermore, the non-WiMAX network may generate accounting information of its own and may choose to ignore accounting information from the WiMAX network. Therefore, accounting information generated by the WiMAX network and injected into both the WiMAX network and the non-WiMAX network may increase the amount of network traffic, thereby potentially reducing overall network performance by increasing network overhead.